Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/161

 his college of Corpus Christi at Oxford, the foundation and settlement of which attracted great attention at the time (1515–16). Its most distinctive characteristic was the recognition of the new learning, a public lecturer in Greek being one of its principal officers. The foundation of this lectureship appears to have been the first official recognition of the Greek language in either university. Innovations almost equally startling were his bringing over the distinguished humanist, Ludovicus Vives, from the south of Italy to be reader of Latin, and his provision that the reader in theology should, in his interpretations of scripture, follow the Greek and Latin fathers rather than the scholastic commentators. The reader in Latin was carefully to extirpate all ‘barbarism’ from ‘our bee-hive,’ the name by which Foxe was accustomed fondly to designate his college. Indeed, Corpus and the subsequent foundations of Christ Church at Oxford and Trinity at Cambridge were emphatically the colleges of the Renaissance. Among the early fellows was Reginald Pole (afterwards cardinal), who with several others was transferred from Magdalen to his new college by the founder himself. Erasmus, writing in 1519 to John Claymond [q. v.], the first president, who had previously been president of Magdalen (Ep. lib. iv.), speaks of the great interest which had been taken in Foxe's foundation by Wolsey, Campeggio, and Henry VIII himself, and predicts that the college will be ranked ‘inter præcipua decora Britanniæ,’ and that its ‘trilinguis bibliotheca’ will attract more scholars to Oxford than were formerly attracted to Rome. It had been Foxe's original intention to establish a house in Oxford, after the fashion of Durham and Canterbury Colleges, for the reception of young monks of St. Swithin's monastery at Winchester while pursuing academical studies; but he was persuaded by Bishop Oldham of Exeter (himself a great benefactor to the college) to change his foundation into the more common form of one for the secular clergy. ‘What, my lord,’ Oldham is represented as saying by John Hooker, alias Vowell, in Holinshed, ‘shall we build houses and provide livelihoods for a company of bussing monks, whose end and fall we ourselves may live to see; no, no, it is more meet a great deal that we should have care to provide for the increase of learning, and for such as who by their learning shall do good in the church and commonwealth.’ The college (which it may be noted was founded out of the private revenues of Foxe and his friends, and not, as was the case with some other foundations, out of ecclesiastical spoils) still possesses the crosier, the gold chalice and patin, with many other relics of its founder. In addition to this notable foundation Foxe also built and endowed schools at Taunton and Grantham (the school of Sir Isaac Newton), besides making extensive additions and alterations in Winchester Cathedral, Farnham Castle, and the hospital of St. Cross. His alterations in Durham Castle and his fortifications at Norham have been already noticed. He was a benefactor also to the abbeys of Glastonbury and Netley, to Magdalen College, Oxford, and Pembroke College, Cambridge, and seems to have contributed largely to what we should now call the ‘restoration’ of St. Mary's Church, Oxford, as well as to the reduction of the floods in Oxford in the year of pestilence, 1517 (, Annals, sub ann.). He is also said to have been concerned in the building of Henry VII's Chapel at Westminster, the architecture of which, though on a much larger scale, resembles that of his own chapel in Winchester Cathedral. Notwithstanding these numerous benefactions, his household appointments seem to have been on a magnificent scale. Harpsfield tells us that he had no less than 220 serving-men.

In 1499 a little book, entitled ‘Contemplacyon of Synners,’ was printed by Wynken de Worde, ‘compyled and fynyshed at the devoute and dylygent request of the ryght reverende fader in God the lorde Rycharde bysshop of Dureham,’ &c. It is possible that Foxe himself may have had a hand in this work. He also edited the ‘Processional,’ according to the use of Sarum, which was printed at Rouen, in 1508. At a later period he translated the Rule of St. Benedict for the benefit of the ‘devout, religious women’ of his diocese. The book was beautifully printed by Pynson on 22 Jan. 1516–17. From a letter to Wolsey, written on 18 Jan. 1527–28, it would appear that Foxe had at a subsequent time much trouble with some of his nuns.

There are several portraits of Foxe at Corpus Christi College, the principal of which is the one in the hall by ‘Joannes Corvus, Flandrus’ [see ], which represents him as blind. Some of these portraits are independent, and apparently independent of them all are one at Lambeth Palace, and one, taken in 1522, at Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire. Among the engraved portraits are one by Vertue, 1723, and one by Faber, circa 1713; the former of the picture by Corvus, the latter of a picture, also in the possession of the college, representing the bishop while still having his sight.

[Greneway's MS. Life of Foxe, and Fulman MSS. vol. ix. in C. C. C. Library; Wood's Colleges and Halls